In response to Senators Ahmed Lawan and Godswill Akpabio’s nominations, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has stated that the All Progressives Congress (APC) does not have candidates for Yobe North and Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial Districts.

The commission insisted that it did not accommodate the duo’s nominations by the party.

Festus Okoye, national commissioner and chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, stated yesterday on Channels TV’s ‘Politics Today’ that the Commission has not recognized either of the two personalities as a Senatorial candidate.

“The commission has clarified the commission has made it very clear that under Section 29 subsection one of the electoral act,” he stated. A political party is responsible for forwarding to the Independent National Electoral Commission the names or lists of their members who emerged from validly conducted party primaries.

“In these two districts. Two names were forwarded to the Commission, and the Commission determined that the names forwarded to us did not result from validly conducted party primaries.

“And we didn’t publish their specifics, so here we are.”

Okoye stated that the commission will not go out of its way to persuade the APC to forward the name of a valid primary candidate.

“The commission will not go out of its way to persuade a political party to forward the name of a validly conducted party primary candidate.”

“The implication is that if a political party does not forward the name of a candidate who emerges from valid party primaries, that particular political party will not have candidates in the election for that particular constituency, and that is what the law states.”

He also stated that the names of Lawan and Akpabio were uploaded by the APC to the INEC candidates’ nomination portal, but the names were rejected by the commission.

“So the implication is that the APC does not have a candidate in those two constituencies as of today,” he added.

He went on to say that the conduct of party primaries takes place primarily within the domestic realms of the various political parties.

“The only thing the law says is that the Commission should monitor the conduct of those primaries to ensure that the names submitted to the Commission are the names of persons who emerge from validly conducted primaries,” he continued.